Editor's note: Reporter Hal Bernton and photographer Thomas James Hurst are spending a month in Iraq, reporting on the U.S. military campaign as well as the lives of Iraqi civilians. Today's photos are from an air base north of Baghdad.

Grim struggle to save lives inside ragged Baghdad ER"We need more of everything," says one doctor. "But the most important thing we need here is humanity."

Engineers' mission: detect and disarmThe explosion comes at midmorning, a dull boom that reverberates through the fog that hangs over this small U.S. Army base.View photo gallery

On patrol in Ad Dujayl — A day with Washington State National Guard's Bravo Company 14th Engineer Battalion in the town of Ad Dujal.View photo gallery

BALAD, Iraq — Rushing across central Iraq in a low-flying Chinook helicopter, Sgt. Rachel Green perches at the edge of an open tail ramp, a finger near the trigger of her M-60 machine gun. ...View photo gallery

BALAD, Iraq — As the sun rose like a bright red orb over the concrete bunkers of this vanquished Iraqi air base, Maj. Grant Haugen strode to the end of a vast runway speckled with U.S. Army Chinook helicopters. ...View photo gallery